Episode #152: Cultural vs. religious Jews, “Chosen” Rosen

Get out of the heat and join the boys for a sports- and philosophy-heavy episode featuring the travails of Goldbrener’s wife and Rosen’s dog, followed by an avalanche of Jewish sports news, which is rare, including Goldbrener’s suggestions regarding the “best” NFL team for Jews, the all-time Jewish home run leader, Juan Epstein syndrome and whether UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen’s nickname is an ethnic slur, which is odd since Rosen doesn’t even consider himself Jewish, leading us to this week’s question:

Is an increase of “cultural” Judaism and a decline of “religious” Judaism good for the Jews?

Rosen did not expect this simple question would spur such in-depth conversation (and disagreement), but it did. Each podcaster has his own take on culture vs. religion, “anecdotal” Jewishness vs. Jewishness as a cornerstone and “you can run but you can’t hide” Judaism.

Sorry, kid; you’re Jewish.

About Larry Rosen

Was born Jewish, raised Jewish and educated Catholic. He is a “Jewsuit”. He is also a husband, father, newspaper and magazine writer, habitual wearer of baseball caps and author of the soon-to-be-released memoir about his son’s bar mitzvah, “The Rabbi Has Left the Building.”
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